Chargeback Prevention Analytics
Chargeback Prevention Analytics
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................. 3
Chargeback Metrics............................................................................... 4
Root Causes of Chargebacks........................................................... 6
Understand Your Customers............................................................. 8
Increase Retention Rate....................................................................... 10
Prevent Future Chargebacks............................................................. 13
Increase Chargeback Win Rate....................................................... 16
Your Next Steps......................................................................................... 20
About Chargeback Gurus................................................................... 22
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Introduction
Every business that accepts credit cards for payment has to have a plan for dealing with
chargebacks. They affect businesses of every size and industry, and their numbers keep
growing every year. No matter how profitable a business may be, chargebacks have the
potential to threaten their sustainability. There are three vectors along which chargebacks
can damage a company:
› The cost of chargebacks. With time, labor, and fees included, the price of a single
chargeback can be more than double the amount of the original transaction in
dispute.
› The chargeback rate. Payment processors will drop clients whose chargeback
rates exceed a certain threshold, usually 1%. Merchants with excessive chargebacks
are forced into relationships with “high risk” payment processors that charge
exorbitant fees.
› The impact on customers. Almost every chargeback that reaches you represents
a dealing with a customer that went awry. Whether a chargeback comes from a
previously loyal customer who feels let down or a fraudster targeting weak points in
your security, there is almost always something you could have done to prevent it.
The best way to defeat chargebacks is to know the reasons why they are happening so
that you can respond to them correctly and fix the root causes in your business operations.
The key to this knowledge is chargeback analysis: a rigorous, data-driven approach that
examines the reasons, sources, and outcomes of your chargebacks.
In this e-book, we will explain how you can understand your customers better, retain more of
them, and prevent chargebacks of all varieties by engaging in chargeback analysis.
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Chargeback Metrics
Understanding chargeback metrics can be a great benefit to your business, and yet many
merchants make a deliberate choice to avoid educating themselves about chargebacks.
There’s a lot of myths about chargebacks out there. Here are some of the chargeback
myths we hear most often:
When you understand why your customers are disputing your charges, you can take
concrete steps to address those reasons, resulting in increased customer retention,
better business processes, and faster revenue growth. Every chargeback
presents you with an opportunity to strengthen your business.
Just as a chef has to keep her knives sharp to prepare food correctly,
ecommerce merchants must constantly hone and refine their business processes to
keep pace with their competition and operate efficiently. Chargeback metrics are like
a whetstone for sharpening the tools of the ecommerce trade. By analyzing them and
acting on the insights you glean, you can keep your processes sharp and effective.
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
There are three board categories of chargeback types: True Fraud, Friendly Fraud, and
Merchant Error. As seen in this chart, True Fraud accounts for about 10-15% of chargebacks,
with 60-80% resulting from Friendly Fraud and the rest attributable to Merchant Error. Each
of these categories may encompass a range of different root causes.
True Fraud
True Fraud refers to the use of stolen cards and compromised payment
credentials. If you’re not addressing the vulnerabilities that fraudsters
are exploiting, the problem will grow and customers will lose faith in your
company.
True Fraud can be addressed with recommended security protocols like AVS/
CVV matching. You can also activate fraud filters in your payment gateway,
which can screen out a considerable number of fraud attempts, and use
third-party fraud prevention tools like 3-D Secure.
When a stolen card is used to shop at your store, don’t be surprised if the
victim starts talking about it on social media, making your company look
unsafe. Brand loyalty is largely a thing of the past, and customers have
many other options for online shopping. Break a customer’s trust, and
it’s unlikely they’ll ever come back. The best way to stop True Fraud is to
implement seamless and effective security features, but first you have to
understand exactly where your vulnerabilities lie.
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Friendly Fraud
Friendly Fraud can happen in a variety of ways. Essentially, it refers to
a legitimate transaction that the customer later finds some reason to
dispute. Friendly Fraud can be the merchant’s fault, especially when there’s
a breakdown in the customer service process. If the customer can’t reach
you, or you aren’t willing to resolve whatever issue they’re having, it’s all too
easy for them to contact their bank instead and demand a chargeback.
This is the most common form of Friendly Fraud.
Other times, the customer is simply confused. They get their credit card
statement, see a charge that they don’t recognize, and “investigate”
by proceeding directly to a transaction dispute. Merchants sometimes
exacerbate this problem by not bothering to review and update the
merchant information that gets printed on bank statements. It should
never be a challenge for a customer to connect the charge on their
statement with your company name.
And then there are those customers who perpetrate Friendly Fraud
intentionally, gaming the system to get their money back on products
that they’ve bought and used. Sometimes they’ll ever go for the hat trick
by getting a refund, a chargeback, and keeping the item they bought.
Scammers share information online about vulnerable merchants and
exploitable loopholes, and a merchant that doesn’t protect itself will get
victimized many times over.
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Merchant Error
X
Merchant Error covers a wide variety of customer service, quality control,
and communication issues that can lead to chargebacks. Deceptive
billing practices are the number one culprit, especially with merchants
that use trial offers and other shady tactics to get customers on the hook
for recurring transactions. When the terms and conditions aren’t explained
properly, the customer feels deceived and disputes the charge.
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Traffic Source
Typically, there are many different websites sending
customers your way. Some may be marketing channels
you’ve invested in, others may be organic sources. Either way,
tracing a chargeback to its traffic source can give you lots of
information about who your right audience is.
300
CHARGEBACK COUNTS
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Location
One of the great things about ecommerce is
that you can sell to anyone, anywhere in the
world—but if you’re going to venture into CITY ANALYSIS
international markets, you can’t treat every
Los Angeles
customer as if they’re just like the people you’re
familiar with. Some countries might be bad for 918
your chargeback rate. New York
1
721
You can break this down even further and examine San Francisco
chargeback rates by state and city, too. If your 311
chargebacks are geographically clustered,
Boise
something is up. It may take further analysis to
205
understand why expectations differ in these areas,
but in the meantime, you can stop working those CHARGEBACK COUNT
channels until you figure out what the issue is.
MERCHANT ACCOUNT
Merchant Account RISK ANALYSIS
1.0
Typically, there are many different websites
0.7
sending customers your way. Some may be For
CHARGEBACK RATIO
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
How can you accomplish this? We believe there are three pillars of customer retention:
Product, Value, and Service. You need to make each of yours as strong as you can, and
chargeback analysis can show you how by giving you insights into issues your customers
may be having with your product quality, pricing, and customer service.
CHARGEBACK COUNTS
and request a refund, you can expect to 50
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Customer Contact
You should always encourage customers to reach out to you with any
problem they might be having, so that they don’t go to their bank first and
proceed directly to a dispute. However, nearly half of all customers who
reach out to the merchant first still end up disputing. Why is that? Usually
it’s because the merchant doesn’t respond in a timely fashion, doesn’t
make the customer feel heard, and doesn’t notify them about refunds that
may be in the works.
Contacted
5885
Phone
3140
Email
2745
Not Contacted
5408
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Legitimate Chargebacks
Some chargebacks are entirely legitimate, made for the very reasons
chargebacks were invented in the first place. These are almost always true
fraud or merchant error chargebacks. They may be the result of fulfilment
errors (failure to ship on time, expedite requests ignored, returns not
tracked), system issues, conflicts with your terms and conditions or store
policies, or duplicate billings after cancellation requests.
Legitimate chargebacks can provide you with some of the best metrics for
improvement, because they almost always tie back to real (and fixable)
problems with your security, customer service, or business operations.
When a chargeback shows you where a breakdown or flaw in your
processes has occurred, waste no time in addressing it.
LEGITIMATE CHARGEBACKS
TRUE
NEGATIVE FRAUD 8%
AVS 9%
BILLING
ERROR 9% FULFILMENT
ERROR 31%
CALL CENTER
ERROR 39%
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Fraud Type
Fraud comes in many varieties, with different safeguards applicable for each
situation. If more than 5% of your chargebacks are attributable to true fraud,
you should be making better use of fraud prevention tools, which use algorithms
to detect signs of fraud much more quickly and consistently than manually
reviewing transactions for fraud indicators. If you’re already using anti-fraud
tools and more than 5% of your chargebacks are true fraud, you may need to
adjust the settings on those tools. Many merchants avoid using all of the
available fraud filters because they’re worried about false positives screening
out legitimate orders. You have to find the sweet spot in your settings that lets
real orders through while effectively stopping the fraudsters.
Friendly fraud may occur because of issues with your product or business
operations, or because you’re targeting bad sets of customers who are being
purposely deceitful. Breaking down the data from your friendly fraud chargebacks
can indicate where the problem lies.
Repeat Offenders
Chargeback analysis can show REPEAT OFFENDER ANALYSIS
you if the same customers are
responsible for multiple Mr. Anderson
chargebacks. It’s important to 12
track and monitor repeat Ms. Williams
offenders.
7
CUSTOMER
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
about disputing multiple charges per merchant, and they’ll keep doing it if you
don’t stop them.
Friendly fraudsters frequently retarget the same merchants they’ve been able
to successfully abuse in the past. This is especially common in industries
like online gaming, or where purchased items can be resold easily. Blocking future
transactions from known (or even suspected) friendly fraudsters is a foolproof
way to put a stop to their chargebacks. If you have repeat offenders, create a
blacklist and don’t be afraid to use it.
Store Analysis
Merchants who sell online but maintain STORE ANALYSIS
a brick-and-mortar retail presence must
be aware of their specific vulnerabilities. A
common scheme among fraudsters
is to use a stolen card to place an order
online for in-store pickup, then using a fake
ID to pick the item up—stronger verification 32-68%
requirements can remedy this. You may
also find that some store locations have
better or worse customer service than
others, leading to more disputes at those
locations. By tracking disputes by store,
you can identify the ones in need of
OOPI - Order Online Pick-up Inside
improvement.
OOPS - Order Online Product Shipped
Reason Code
The reason code is the most REASON CODE ANALYSIS
Top 5 Reason Codes
relevant data point in any
chargeback, as it indicates 800
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Refund vs Non-Refund
Most customers, when they dispute a transaction, just want to get their money
back. Many chargebacks can be stopped cold simply by issuing a refund.
However, customers cannot always verify when the merchant has initiated the
refund process. Delays and miscommunications can lead them to conclude that
a promised refund is never coming, so they call their bank and demand a
chargeback. This can be seen in the data as chargebacks occurring after the
refund process has been initiated. You can prevent this by communicating
proactively with customers about pending refunds, providing them with
authorization numbers and other information that will reassure them that a refund
is forthcoming.
REFUND ANALYSIS
Refund Issued
50%
Full Refund
45%
Partial Refund
5%
No Refund
50%
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
When a merchant fights a chargeback, they submit compelling evidence and a cover
letter to their acquirer for representment of the charge. If the acquirer finds the evidence
satisfactory, they’ll represent the charge to the issuer, but that doesn’t mean the case
is over. The issuer still has to review the evidence and decide whether or not to accept
it—they are the final decider. If the issuer rejects the evidence, the case goes to pre-
arbitration and the merchant must either submit new evidence or accept the loss.
If you handle your chargebacks in-house, a win rate of 35% to 40% is acceptable. Any
less than that, and the time you’re spending fighting them is probably costing you more
money than you’re winning back. Also, when calculating win rate businesses often make
mistake when determining the actual win rate. True win rate is determined after deducting
all the cases lost and pre-arbitration chargebacks from the actual fought chargebacks.
Rather than write off chargebacks as a cost of doing business (and watching your
chargeback rate skyrocket), you may need to look into working with a chargeback
management company.
While the card networks set the rules, the issuers still get to interpret them,
and that can give them considerable flexibility in their decisions. Some
issuers always seem to favor their customers over merchants. You might
dispute chargebacks from two different issuers with the same reason code
and evidence and get two completely different decisions back. You might
choose to engage in A/B testing to see what evidence works for different
issuers.
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Acquirer behavior can vary as well. Some acquirers, due to staff shortages
or other problems, might not submit your representments on time, even if
you upload your evidence well before the deadline. If you’re not getting a
good win rate with an acquirer, it may be wise to reach out to them to ask
for their input on how to win more of your disputes.
PROCESSOR ANALYSIS
Top 5 Processors
100%
75%
Won
50% Lost
Pending
25%
0
PayPal First Chase Stripe Paysafe
Data
BIN ANALYSIS
Top 5 BINs
300
225
Won
150 Lost
Pending
75
0
JPM Bank of Citi US PNC
Chase America Bank Bancorp Financial
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Card Type
Visa, Mastercard, and the other card networks all have slightly different
rules regarding chargebacks, reason codes, and the appropriate
standards of evidence for countering disputes. The right approach for
one card network may require some adjustment to be found acceptable
by another. If your win/loss rate differs across networks, you may need to
fine-tune the evidence you’re submitting. Don’t get locked into a cookie-
cutter formula for your representments; tailor your response as much as
you believe necessary.
100%
75%
Won
50% Lost
Pending
25%
0
Visa Master Amex Discover Others
Reason Code
If there are certain reason codes that you never seem to be able to fight
effectively, you may be making some fundamental errors in your selection
of compelling and evidence to submit. Reason codes tell you what kind
of evidence you need to successfully represent a chargeback, but reason
codes may not always accurately reflect what is actually going on
between the merchant and the disputing customer.
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
The most commonly encountered reason codes are the ones related to
fraud and unauthorized charges. When a large number of your chargebacks
fall under the latter category, it may indicate problems with how you’re
confirming and notifying customers of transactions. An emailed invoice or
text confirmation may give customers a chance to deal with authorization
issues directly with you instead of going to their bank.
100%
75%
Won
50% Lost
Pending
25%
0
Fradulent Cancelled Cancelled Second Cardholder
Transaction Recurring Merchandise/ Chargeback/Pre- Disputes of
Transaction Services Arbitration/ Quality of Goods
Arbitration & Services Ñ Not
as Described or
Defective
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Done right, chargeback analysis can paint a picture of your business that
clearly outlines your vulnerabilities and shows you where you need to
make improvements. It’s likely that very few of your competitors are
The average bothering to engage in chargeback analysis because they don’t
business in realize it’s a hidden treasure hoard of valuable data. By analyzing
ecommerce chargebacks and acting on your findings you can gain a significant
competitive edge—retaining more customers, lowering your cost
loses between per acquisition, avoiding excessive fees, and increasing profits.
5% and 15% of
their revenue The average business in ecommerce loses between 5% and 15%
of their revenue to fraud and chargebacks each month. This is a
to fraud and problem that grows if left unaddressed. Fraudsters will take you
chargebacks for everything they can if you show yourself to be an easy mark,
each month. especially if you sell products that can be resold easily. No matter
how profitable your enterprise, these are not losses you can simply
afford to write off.
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Where many businesses stumble is in trying to devise a chargeback strategy that fits their
company. Enterprise companies find it challenging to engage their resources in disputing
chargebacks on time, tracking the analytics to determine the true source of chargebacks
and not to mention the time needed to engage their resources in learning the ever-
changing dispute mandates. On the other end smaller businesses has to wear many hats
and chargeback defense can feel overwhelming—so it doesn’t really get done at all.
This is where chargeback management firms can step in to fill the gap, providing an
outsourced solution that can take care of analyzing and dealing with chargebacks, and
giving the merchant the tools they need to make operational and policy changes that will
have a real positive impact on their chargeback rate.
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Chargeback Analytics | Your gateway to prevent fraud, reduce disputes & increase customer retention
Their proprietary Root Cause Analyzer™ combined with FPR-360™ tool analyzes 40+
chargeback data points identifying business vulnerabilities and preventing 50% or more of
chargebacks. Gurus’ Smart Chargeback Representment™ process combines automation,
data analytics and expert analysis to help companies recover over 75% of chargebacks
and over a billion dollars.
Schedule your consultation today to learn how Chargeback Gurus can increase your
profitability by eliminating your fraud and chargeback challenges.
Contact us:
+1 (866) 999-3758
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